Roman art from Louvre, Impressionists to fill SAM's expanded space

In an announcement that implied great things to come but left much unsaid, Seattle Art Museum offered highlights of the exhibition schedule for its expanded downtown museum, set to open May 5. The lineup includes Roman art from the Louvre, Impressionist paintings, a major Northwest Native American exhibition, an appreciation of Eastern Washington painter Gaylen Hansen and as yet unspecified gifts to the collection.

The expansion, which adjoins the old Robert Venturi-designed building at First Avenue and Union, will open up more than 70 percent more gallery space, including two floors that will be free to the public.

The first exhibition in the new galleries "SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle" will focus on recent gifts to the museum's permanent collection. SAM officials have not yet announced what those gifts are, but we can anticipate major artworks from SAM trustees and other Northwest art collectors.

Those donations came as part of "an ambitious acquisitions initiative" coinciding with SAM's ongoing building campaign, a news release stated.

In other words, in addition to soliciting money toward the museum's $180 million capital campaign to build the new Olympic Sculpture Park, expand the downtown museum and provide needed renovations to the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park, SAM officials have been actively seeking important gifts of art. The opening show will demonstrate their success. SAM will announce those gifts in coming weeks.

Also on the opening lineup is "Five Masterpieces of Asian Art: The Story of their Conservation."

In October, SAM will follow with "Gaylen Hansen, Three Decades of Painting" and "Japan Envisions the West: 16th-19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum."

The Gaylen Hansen exhibition features one of the Northwest's most admired and delightful artists, whose figurative paintings invent a wry mythology based on the creatures of the Palouse in Eastern Washington and Hansen's alter ego, "The Kernal." The show was organized by Washington State University Museum of Art, Pullman, where it opens Friday

The Japanese exhibition was organized by SAM curator Yukiko Shirahara, with the Kobe City Museum. It includes 140 paintings, prints, maps, ceramics, textiles and other objects from the Kobe City Museum, the first time it has lent masterpieces to a U.S. museum.

In February 2008, SAM will open the only West Coast showing of "Roman Art from the Louvre," which focuses on mosaics, sculptures, frescoes and more from the first century B.C. to the fourth century A.D.

"Inspiring Impressionism" is scheduled for summer 2008 and looks at the way Impressionism grew from art of the Old Masters, as the upcoming painters copied the masterpieces in the Louvre. The show, organized by the Denver Art Museum, will include some of those copies and the work that inspired them. It focuses on the artists Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne.

In October 2008, SAM will open a major show of artworks by Coast Salish peoples of Washington and British Columbia. "S'Abadeb (The Gifts): Coast Salish Art and Artists" combines historic artworks dating from the late 18th century with contemporary and prehistoric objects to offer a broad picture of the region's indigenous culture. The show was organized by SAM curator Barbara Brotherton.

Sheila Farr: sfarr@seattletimes.com